UPCOMING EVENTS

A new production pipeline from NextVR for the NBA Finals promises higher quality streams for all viewers.

The streaming app is now available for most VR headsets, but Vive Pro and Samsung Odyssey owners have a major reason to put on their headsets throughout the NBA Finals featuring the Golden State Warriors and Cleveland Cavaliers. Highlights from the games, presented by YouTube TV, will be the first to showcase some of the game-changing improvements we glimpsed at CES in January. The highlights will be available on the day following each finals game (Game 1 is tonight, which means tonight’s VR highlights will be available tomorrow.)

All VR headsets with NextVR are said to benefit from sharper textures from the new production pipeline, but the Odyssey and Vive Pro headsets will be able to show some of the best moments of the NBA Finals at a resolution that should reveal details nobody could see in VR before.

NextVR is one of the leaders when it comes to capturing reality and streaming it for people to experience around the world. Over the years the startup built out its streaming technology while capturing a variety of events from the NFL to U.S. Presidential Debates. Everything from camera placement and cameras themselves to the streaming technologies beaming live events to headsets around the world needed to be rethought with VR broadcasting in mind. While NextVR is a leader, only if all those elements come together in just the right way does it make sense to really put on a headset instead of watching something on TV.

With the NBA, NextVR places cameras courtside as well as in multiple spots near the hoops on both ends.

I was invited by @nextvr to check out how they broadcast an NBA game in VR. This first photo shows 3 separate camera rigs — 1 at the glass, 1 on the stanchion and one on the ground for on-camera commentary. Second photo is in the broadcast truck, third is the courtside camera. pic.twitter.com/VCvORjwHsw

By reducing the game to some of its key moments — particularly when the players get up close to the cameras — it should make for a pretty pleasant viewing experience. The highlights will be free for all users.

NextVR hasn’t yet introduced 6 degrees of freedom to its broadcasts, but that is still in the works according to CEO David Cole, along with other updates to its streaming platform.

“There’s a lot more hardware on the horizon,” Cole said, referring to their plans to ship their streaming apps on most headsets going forward. “More advanced headsets slated to ship in the future will take even greater advantage of this new VR broadcast technology.”